Maren Lundby, the World Cup leader, had the longest jumps in both series. In the final round, she managed a jump of 110 meters. Foto: Reuters

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Križnar saves the honor of Slovenian women ski jumpers with her seventh-place finish

No surprises at the top

12. February 2018 ob 22:43
PyeongChang - MMC RTV SLO

The women’s ski jumping competition at the Olympics ended without major surprises: Maren Lundby took the gold, while Katharina Althaus was 12 points behind, enough to take the silver. Sara Takanshi managed to take the bronze.

Of the four Slovenian competitors, only 17-year-old Nika Križnar put in an outstanding performance. She finished in seventh place and was the first among Slovenia’s 71 Olympic competitors to finish within the top ten. She was already in the seventh position after the first series (with a jump of 101 meters), but the third-best jump of the final series (104 meters) was not enough for an improvement in the final series. Ema Klinec finished twelfth, while Špela Rogelj (22nd place) and Urša Bogataj (30th place) did not perform well on the medium jump.

Lundby made her jump from a considerably lower starting gateWhen Nika Križnar, the junior world champion, easily exceeded the 100-meter mark, the jury lowered the starting gate. In the end, not even Takanashi managed to jump farther (103.5 meters), but the best female ski jumper of all time was still thrilled with the result when she took the lead with only two competitors left to jump. After four overall wins in the World Cup, she had ensured her first Olympic medal. After Takanashi’s jump, the starting gate was lowered once again. From the lower gate, Althaus (106 meters) and Lundby (110 meters) – the latter competitor’s gate was lowered by three positions – once again confirmed that they are a class apart this ski jumping season.

Problems with the wind once againAfter the first series, the jumpers in the top three positions were the same as in the end, but the lead enjoyed by Maren Lundby of Norway was just a bit more than two points over Katharina Althaus of Germany. The hands-on favorite and the World Cup leader did not break under the pressure of the Olympics competition. With the longest jump of the day – 110 meters – she bested Althaus with a margin of 12 points. As was the case during the men’s competition, wind caused problems and the race had to be interrupted several times. (The first series, with 35 competitors, took more than an hour). Still the competition ended before midnight.

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